Fresh scandal hits News Corp

Wednesday, March 28, 2012 - 01:31

March 28 - Pressure is building in Britain and Australia for fresh probes into Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, already under siege over phone-hacking claims, after allegations that it ran a secret unit that promoted pirating of pay-TV rivals. Ciara Sutton reports.

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A fresh storm threatens to rock News Corp as it's practices have again come under scrutiny.
Reports have surfaced of a secret unit set up in Australia to sabotage competitors.
The new allegations add further pressure to the Murdoch empire, already under siege over hacking claims in the UK.
The Australian Financial Review says News Corp used a special unit set up in the mid-1990s, to promote pirating of pay-TV rivals.
This supports claims made in a BBC Panorama documentary aired in the UK earlier in the week.
Staffed by former police and intelligence officers, it allegedly cracked the codes of smartcards issued to customers of rival services.
The paper says the unit then sold black-market smartcards, giving viewers free access to services.
The widespread availability of codes contributed to the 2002 collapse of ITV Digital (, which was set up by the team who formed the UK's ITV.) this could go maybe
The allegations focus on emails made public from the head of security at NDS - a company with James Murdoch on the board.
News Corp sold NDS for 5 billion dollars this month.
Both NDS and News Corp deny any involvement in internet piracy, computer hacking or the sabotage of rivals.
The latest scandal comes as the media giant remains embroiled in the ongoing Leveson inquiry into the ethics of the UK press.
Ciara Sutton, Reuters.